However, two notable exceptions this year are rotund, squishy and a little clumsy, and they won't be winning any medals for their athletic prowess. Nevertheless, they serve as iconic emblems of the Winter Games and of the culture and folklore of the Olympics' host country, South Korea. They are the official Olympic mascots — a white tiger named Soohorang, representing the Winter Games, and an Asiatic black bear named Bandabi, serving as the mascot for the Paralympics. Visualized cartoonishly, these anthropomorphized animals are tubby and smiling and deliberately cute. But the Asiatic bear and white tiger also have a long and storied past in the Korean peninsula, appearing as pivotal figures in its culture and history, and featured prominently in paintings and sculptures. Both animals appear in Korea's origin story, according to the " Samguk Yusa ," or "Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms," a collection of Korean historical accounts, legends and folktales dating to the 13th century. In the tale, a bear and a tiger undergo a series of grueling trials to become human.

Soohorang (Korean: 수호랑) is the official mascot of the Winter Olympics, and Bandabi (Korean: 반다비) is the official mascot of the Winter. Soohorang, the mascot of the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games, took its motif from the white tiger. The white tiger has been long considered Korea's. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board today approved the new mascot for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang — a white tiger named “Soohorang.”. In selecting a tiger as mascot, the PyeongChang Organising Committee chose an animal closely associated.